EXTENDING COMPUTER GRAPHICS CURRICULUM BY CULTURAL HERITAGE-RELATED ASPECTS - SILK ROAD ARTIFACTS CASE STUDY
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EXTENDING COMPUTER GRAPHICS CURRICULUM BY CULTURAL
HERITAGE-RELATED ASPECTS - SILK ROAD ARTIFACTS CASE
STUDY
J. Kęsik, K. Żyła
Lublin University of Technology (POLAND)
Abstract
Teaching of computer graphic (CG) courses involves creation and processing of graphical content by
students. While the main goal of using specific content is to well present aspects of specific topics and
techniques, it is a proven fact that students are more interested in doing projects that operate on
interesting and potentially useful content.
The preservation and dissemination of cultural heritage involves more and more aspects from the
computer graphics area. That relates especially to 3D scanning, processing and presenting various
cultural heritage artifacts, which has especially grown in importance in the current pandemic time as
the safe alternative to visiting museums or heritage sites. While 3D digitizing of heritage objects is
rather a specific utilization of computer graphics, it involves in majority typical techniques that are
commonly used in different CG fields.
The CG course is regularly taught during the 4th semester of the 1st degree Computer Science
studies at Lublin University of Technology. We are describing an attempt to include cultural heritage
related aspects into standard CG teaching in order to improve students’ interest in the course and at
the same time encourage their involvement into exploring and preserving cultural heritage. The Silk
Road heritage was chosen as the source of materials for the modified course thanks to the long-term
cooperation with Samarkand (Uzbekistan) museums, and ongoing digitization activities.
A research question has been set: Whether a synergy of acquired skills can be obtained by extending
the standard computer graphics course by the basics of cultural heritage models processing, without
harming the main goal of the course. The discussion about students’ projects effects and grades
acquired in comparison to the former editions of the course is presented. In our opinion providing
examples of real-life artifacts models not only gave students the opportunity to be involved in the
professional applications of CG and acquire experience useful during the heritage digitization, but also
improved their engagement during the classes.
Keywords: Computer graphics teaching, cultural heritage, Silk Road, 3D models processing.
1 INTRODUCTION
Teaching of computer graphic (CG) courses involves creation and processing of graphical content by
students. While the main goal of using specific content is to well present aspects of specific topics and
techniques, it is a proven fact that students are more interested in doing projects that operate on
interesting and potentially useful content.
The Computer Graphics Basics course is being taught at the first level of Computer Science studies at
Lublin University of Technology. It uses a standard layout - lecture and practice classes. The course
program introduces students to the basics of computer graphics processing, starting from raster
graphics, through vector graphics and then 3D graphics. The aim of the course is to familiarize
students with the basic techniques of graphics processing used in typical tasks of creating
contemporary applications and their interfaces. The broad range of computer graphics knowledge
covered by the course requires from students involvement in the implementation works in various
areas of computer graphics (raster graphics, vector graphics, 3D, animation). During the course hours,
students receive theoretical knowledge and practice basic techniques useful in carrying out such
tasks. Works from a given area (assigned individually) are performed by themselves. In the case of
some of them, this is sometimes an incentive to independently search for more advanced solutions to
the problems encountered than those practiced in class. In the previous years, the obtained
independent tasks were not related to each other and the topics were chosen randomly, which made
some students negotiate a change of topic.
Proceedings of INTED2021 Conference ISBN: 978-84-09-27666-0
4900
8th-9th March 2021
In order to obtain greater involvement of students in the progress of the course, it was decided to
introduce a uniform topic of assigned tasks. So that the implementation of subsequent tasks leads to
the overall end result. After searching for available topics that could interest students, it was decided
to make use of the involvement of the Department of Computer Science in 3D scanning of cultural
heritage objects from, among others, the area of the former Silk Road [1]. Ongoing modifications of
the computer graphics course are in line with a bigger trend at LUT. Teams of interdisciplinary
researchers throughout the university investigate modern trends in the field of didactics like
professionalization and remote teaching, to mention the following works [2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8].
The 3D scanning, processing and presenting of various cultural heritage artifacts involves aspects
from the computer graphics area related to vector and 3D graphics (meshing of scanned objects) as
well as raster graphics (creating and adjusting of texture materials). While 3D digitizing of heritage
objects is rather a specific utilization of computer graphics, it involves in majority typical techniques
that are commonly used in different CG fields [9].
Courses implementing the teaching of computer graphics for cultural heritage purposes are already
conducted [10, 11], and from the analysis of their curriculum it can also be concluded that they cover
aspects taught in the standard CG course. Thus cultural heritage related examples can be used in
basic course teaching. It is also an advantage that the course is supplemented with aspects of
preservation and dissemination of cultural heritage, especially in virtual media. That field of cultural
heritage has especially grown in importance in the current pandemic time as the safe alternative to
visiting museums or heritage sites.
Considering the above we would like to pose the following research question:
Whether a synergy of acquired skills can be obtained by extending the standard computer graphics
course by the basics of cultural heritage models processing, without harming the main goal of the
course.
In order to answer the research question, we introduce methods and tools used for teaching standard
and modified computer graphics course. The discussion about students’ projects effects and grades
acquired in comparison to the former editions of the course is presented as well.
2 METHODOLOGY
In this chapter we introduce methodology aspects, like organization of the didactic process during the
computer graphics course, and using heritage-related resources obtained as a result of cooperation
with the Silk Road museums. Finally, techniques of estimating effects of the course modifications are
described.
2.1 Methods and tool used for CG teaching
Students attending the computer graphics course acquire competences using 3 methods: theoretical
knowledge is passed on during the lecture; during the laboratory classes, typical techniques of
graphics processing are practiced; the application of acquired knowledge and skills is verified by the
implementation of individual design tasks including 2D and then 3D graphics. The assessment of the
implementation of tasks is performed in terms of the selection and ability to use graphic techniques,
artistic values are taken into account to a small extent so as not to disturb the assessment of acquired
competences.
In the standard edition of the course, design tasks for a specific student are usually not related to each
other, so the student carries out 2 or 3 different projects covering individual stages of learning: 2D
graphics processing, modelling of 3D objects, animations.
2.2 Modifications involving computer heritage content
In the course edition taking into account the use of cultural heritage objects, it was decided to propose
a series of tasks related to a specific object for implementation by one student. This sequence
included working with texture images, modifying the mesh of the scanned object, and finally modelling
the scene and animating the object. The aim of the work was to prepare a virtual exposition presenting
a 3D model of a cultural heritage artifact. Students were provided with the base models acquired
during 3D scanning in the Afrasiab Museum of Samarkand [12] and Scientific-Experimental Museum-
Laboratory of the Samarkand State University in Uzbekistan [13].
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Figure 1 shows examples of 3D base scans along with the effects of arranging scenes with their
enhanced models participation. The models substituted materials for exercises used so far, but the
sequence of independent tasks that the students had been carrying out remained the same. Also the
method of evaluation has been the same as in the previous years - assessment of the correctness of
the techniques used and the quality of the obtained effect. For students, the difference was mainly in
setting the common goal for the performance of individual tasks - additional motivation to properly
complete the task, the effect of which will be needed in the next stages.
Fig. 1. Sample 3D models of scanned cultural heritage objects, used by students (left) along
with the effects of arranging scenes with their participation (right).
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2.3 Techniques for estimating effects
In order to check whether there is an effect on students’ grades caused by extending the standard
computer graphics course by the basics of cultural heritage models processing, we have analysed
students’ achievements in the years 2018-2020. During these years the knowledge verification
methods were comparable, i.e. students worked on individual assignments, with the advisory role of a
teacher. During 2018 and 2019 the classes were conducted in the stationary form (in a classroom), in
2020 in the remote form. The lecture was conducted by the same person, although the laboratory
classes were conducted by 6 different teachers.
The attendees of extramural studies were not included due to the significant differences in their
background negatively influencing comparability, being the computer graphics course half shorter. The
data we were able to obtain was anonymized, and did not contain demographics data like sex, etc.
We have analysed the final course grades, which were computed by the virtual dean’s office software
in the following way - average value of a grade from the laboratory classes and a grade from the
lecture, rounded to 0.5 precision. In our opinion such a grade shows the best general level of students’
knowledge in computer graphics. Each student is granted 3 attempts to pass the course. The next
attempt is granted only after receiving a negative grade in the current one. The final grades show the
final results of students being able, or not, to pass the course. They are in the same number as in the
case of the 1st attempt, although they might differ in values in the way that a student who got 2.0
might have improved in subsequent attempts.
We have decided to perform a statistical test in order to help answer the research question. In case of
analysed grades do not follow the normal distribution according to the Shapiro-Wilk normality test, we
agreed to perform Wilcoxon rank sum. The significance level was assumed to be 0.05. Computations
were performed in R environment [14].
3 RESULTS
For the purpose of this paper, we have analysed grades of 367 undergraduate students of Computer
Science at LUT who attended the computer graphics course in 2018-2019, and another 206 students
who attended the course in 2020. The attendees of extramural studies were not included in the
analysis.
The summary of the final computer graphics course grades is presented in Table 1. By “Before CH”
we mean the course grades before introducing cultural heritage aspects to the classes, by “After CH”
we mean the grades after introducing these aspects. The following abbreviations were used as well:
“No” (number of grades), “%” (percentage of particular grades), “AVG” (arithmetic average), “SD”
(standard deviation). Histograms are presented in Figure 2, and box plots in Figure 3.
Table 1. Summary of the students’ course grades in 2018-2020
Grades
AVG SD
Year 2.0 3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5 5.0
2018- No 21 42 74 24 133 73 4.05 0.83
Before CH
2019 % 6% 11% 20% 7% 36% 20% - -
No 7 20 67 8 38 66 4.09 0.82
2020 After CH
% 3% 10% 33% 4% 18% 32% - -
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Fig. 2. Histograms of students’ course grades before (2018-2019)
and after (2020) introducing cultural heritage aspects to the classes
Fig. 3. Box plots showing the distribution of students’ course grades before (2018-2019)
and after (2020) introducing cultural heritage aspects to the classes
Two vectors of data were constructed - (1) the final grades in 2018-2019 before introducing cultural
heritage aspects to the classes, and (2) the final grades in 2020 after introducing these aspects. Both
vectors did not follow the normal distribution, which was revealed by the Shapiro-Wilk normality test -
each time p-value2019) and in the pilot edition (2020) using the described change showed no significant difference
between these periods, which indicates that the change did not have a negative impact on the
computer graphics skills acquired by students. There was also a slight increase in the number of
maximum grades, which could potentially be explained by the greater involvement of students in the
implementation of an interesting project. However, confirming this hypothesis would require further
research.
During the pilot course the classes were transferred online, which was related to the introduction of
regulations preventing the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic. According to the authors, the change did
not have a significant impact on the course implementation and the grades obtained. This is due to the
fact that the previous course has focused on the independent implementation of project tasks by
students, with the advisory role of a teacher. The laboratory classes served only the purpose of
introducing the basic techniques and consulting the progress of work - which was successfully
transferred into online communication.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This article has been supported by the Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange
under Grant No. PPI/APM/2019/1/00004 titled "3D DIGITAL SILK ROAD"
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